The Neuroscience of Déjà Vu

Even the most rational of us experience it: you'll be chatting with friends or exploring a place you've never been when suddenly a feeling washes over you: you've experienced this exact moment before. The familiarity is overwhelming, and it shouldn't be familiar at all. The sensation becomes stronger before ebbing, then completely leaves, all within a matter of seconds. Had you predicted the future? Yet, chances are, you can't pinpoint exactly when you'd experienced that premonition before.

Déjà vu is a French term that literally means "already seen" and is reported to occur in 60-70% of people, most commonly between the ages of 15 and 25. The fact that déjà vu occurs so randomly and rapidly—and in individuals without a medical condition—makes it difficult to study, and why and how the phenomenon occurs is up to much speculation. Psychoanalysts may attribute it to wishful thinking; some psychiatrists cite mismatching in the brain causing us to mistake the present for the past. Still, parapsychologists may even believe it is related to a past-life experience. So what do we know for certain about what happens during an episode of déjà vu?

Some researchers speculate that déjà vu occurs when there is a mismatch in the brain during its constant attempt to create whole perceptions of our world with very limited input. Think about your memory: it only takes small bits of sensory information (a familiar smell, for instance) to bring forth a very detailed recollection. Déjà vu is suggested to be some sort of "mix-up" between sensory input and memory-recalling output. This vague theory, however, does not explain why the episode we experience is not necessarily from a true past event.

A different but related theory states that déjà vu is a fleeting malfunctioning between the long- and short-term circuits in the brain. Researchers postulate that the information we take in from our surroundings may "leak out" and incorrectly shortcut its way from short- to long-term memory, bypassing typical storage transfer mechanisms. When a new moment is experienced—which is currently in our short-term memory—it feels as though we're drawing upon some memory from our distant past.

A similar hypothesis suggests that déjà vu is an error in timing; while we perceive a moment, sensory information may simultaneously be re-routing its way to long-term storage, causing a delay and, perhaps, the unsettling feeling that we've experienced the moment before.

One characteristic is common of all déjà vu experiences: we are completely conscious that they are occurring, implying that participation of the entire brain is not necessary to produce the phenomenon.

Over the years, researchers have pinpointed disturbances of the medial temporal lobe as the culprit behind déjà vu. Studies of epileptic patients investigated via intracerebral electrodes demonstrate that stimulation of the rhinal cortex (such as the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices—structures involved in episodic memory and sensory processing) can actually induce a déjà vu episode.

A study published in the March issue of Clinical Neurophysiology analyzed the patterns of electroencephalography (EEG) signals from the rhinal cortices, hippocampus (involved in memory formation), and amygdala (involved in emotion) in epileptic patients for whom déjà vu could be induced by electrical stimulation.

The researchers (from France!—who better?) found that synchronized neural firing between the rhinal cortices and the hippocampus or amygdala were increased in stimulations that induced déjà vu. This suggests that some sort of coincident occurrence in medial temporal lobe structures may "trigger" activation of the recollection system.

While the cause and precise mechanism of déjà vu remains a mystery, worry not—if it happens, nothing is wrong with you. In fact, bask in the moment and appreciate the strange feeling that washes over you. Or pretend to be a fortune teller.

"It's like déjà vu all over again."

-Yogi Berra, on witnessing Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hit back-to-back home runs in the early 1960s Yankees' seasons.

The weirdest moment of Déjà Vu is when I experienced it at the same time my friend did.

Two theories:

We are told that most our brain stops growing at around the age of 25. What if there are some miss connections during brain growth causing a “micro seizure” and memory is stored in the wrong place? If most people experience Déjà vu before the age of 25, this would make sense. I lived with seizures in my early teen years that caused memory/time loss. When they would happen people couldn’t tell I had a seizure (physically) however I had no idea where I was or what I was talking about. Déjà vu could just be a brain hiccup.

The second theory is a bit of a stretch but there could be some validity to it. It is common to have diseases and even talents passed on to us by our parents and grandparent via the gene superhighway. Why couldn’t some of their memories be passed through our DNA? Like a deep rooted memory, sometimes it just takes a scent or sound that triggers a recollection you never had access to before.

I think that the rational explanations for deja vu are not adequate enough to explain all of what we experience when it takes place. If the logical explanations were sufficient in understanding the phenomena we would simply say to ourselves "ah this has happened before". But then that raises all kinds of other questions such as. If this has happened before what about every thing else? Well everything we experience may have happened before we experience it, according to recent quantum theory. The idea is that we get fed our experience from the infinite. I would recommend reading "butterflies are free to fly" a spiritual evolution. Its a free book on kindle. Even though the second half of the book goes of key.( for me ) It does have a strong amount of resources on the latest explanations of our reality. Which my give a different theory towards deja vu. Take a look.

I appreciate your comment. I have a rare (undocumented) psychological condition where I experience déjà vu for an extended period of time. I am not bipolar or delusional. Just as ordinary people experience deva vu in fleeting moments, I have lived with it but for prolonged periods. Mine began two years ago when doctors put me on modafonil for excessive sleepiness. This opened a floodgate that spiraled me into the sensation for 4 months. Thankfully, it now only hits me for a few days at a time. I still work a normal, professional job, but I assure you that déjà vu is like you've described. I have learned how to navigate its mystery, but I do not understand its purpose.

Hi, I've read up about this quite a bit and what you are referring to in your second theory is called cellular memory where it is believed that memories can be carried over through our DNA. I love the idea that this might exist since I've always had very clear memories from a past that was not my own. It made me feel decades older than children my age. The theory exist since people who have had transplants often experience memory recall of memories they believe are not their own. For instance one person who was a vegetarian and had a heart transplant could not stop craving a specific brand of burgers and then found out that the person whose heart she got loved these burgers.

If you can record your experiences with a video camera, it becomes a simple matter of science to collect enough recordings to examine which previous experience is so similar to the current one that you remember it. I have done exactly this. Since you are not presenting a method to refute your hypothesis (as per Karl Popper's test for science vs. pseudo-science) you are not writing a scientific article. What I have done (note science is something you do, like measure, verify, experiment) by recording such experiences is prove that in fact Deja Vu is a perfectly normal memory of a similar but different past experience and that your article is unscientific and the front cover article in this months Psychology Today about Deja Vu is totally unscientific babble.

Did you not read the whole post?
Let me help you out...
"Studies of epileptic patients investigated via intracerebral electrodes demonstrate that stimulation of the rhinal cortex (such as the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices—structures involved in episodic memory and sensory processing) can actually induce a déjà vu episode."

How is you playing around with a video camera more scientific than that? You're just guessing that because your deja vu was of an event similar to one you supposedly recorded, then that just must be the explanation. Seriously? They're looking at and discussing actual neuroscience research in this article... it's certainly not "unscientific babble."

@Chistina "discussing actual neuroscience"
Well that's the thing. The Psychology Today article, which I read in its entirety, about Deja Vu, Coincidences and Premonitions ends with a comment that it's normal to encounter these feelings, but the general tone of the article is to sell the idea of therapy to the reader. I studied abnormal psychology in college and received an A+ (recently) and was not aware of any mistakes at all on my exam or assignments.

Nonetheless the thing about, say using your own camera while you drive is that *you* can get your own evidence. The problem is that not many people have a photographic memory like I do so they are likely to miss the "premonition", "deja vu" (originating event) or not have proof of a strange coincidence, which is more valuable for the analytic value (to see if it's staged, CGI, over-stated, whatever).

Just running a camera in the car for 5 years, I have documentation of things that, if you insist, "mimic" deja vu, premonition and coincidence. My view is that this is because of the large number of seconds in 5 years, and that although they trigger the emotion of deja vu, coincidence and premonition, in 7.2 million seconds of driving, something that occurs within about a second of something else can generate the emotional response, but at the same time be explainable statistically without delving into the area of "abnormal psychology".

That said, I cannot explain all of the video statistically. It truly appears to be split-second timing, and mathematically unlikely and worthy of further analysis (not in biology or chemistry, but in physical reality).

@Christina
By the way, about 5 years ago I was in a car accident where a truck tire fell from an overpass above and ahead of me a bit while I was travelling 100km/h on the highway below and it hit the roof of my car. This inspired me to install a dash-cam and, for interest sake, given that some people say you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than beating 1 in 13,000,000 odds. So here I have 2 frames from the camera apparently showing my car being struck by lightning (by a leader) prior to a big strike relatively close to the car:

What if you recall your "de javu" from a dream your well aware of and remeber? Then it seems to play out the same way in reality. For example you have a dream of meeting someone you haven't met before...then in the future you meet this person in a almost similar scene or circumstances as the dream. A friend of mines claims he has experienced this a few times.

Is this considered "de javu" if you haven't exsperianced the event in real time 1st but in a dream instead?

I believe this is true for me as well. I am in my late 40's and continue to have moments of "de javu" since my childhood. Based on my experiences some moments are more intense than others. Some occurrences have minimal impact while some are very intense, to the point that I feel like some harm or something negative is going to happen to me and I find myself acutely aware of my surroundings in a defense mode.

I really believe (although I cannot prove nor quantify) that my dreams contain "frames of life" to be viewed later in reality at a later point. Sometimes when I have a "de javu" moments it seems as though I have seen "this" in a dream. I know I dream quite a bit and when I wake up I barely remember bits and pieces or glimpses of "pictures" and when time passes I have lost all memory of the dream until a "de javu" moment occurs. When it occurs it feels like I have dreamt this point and time before.

There have been times (maybe 3 or 4) that several months, maybe a year can go by without a "de javu" moment. Since these "moments" have happened throughout my life, I sometimes wonder if I am going to die soon. I find myself trying to remember my dreams to possibly encourage a "de javu" moment just to make sure I'm alive in the future. No one wants to die, especially in their 40's.

But my purely speculative thought of how "de javu" occurs has to do with space and time along with Gods higher power.
If a "being" far far away was looking through a telescope pointed at the Earth and could drill down to the street level and watch the hustle and bustle of human life, what year would they be watching and in what space? Is it past, present or future space? I believe a "frame of life" from a future space can transcend or reveal itself in our memory once we pass that space at that point in time.

What I find truly amazing is that no one has ever experienced "de juva" from past events! Oh wait, that's because we have passed through that space and time which has created our memory. But since God created all, and is all knowing there are many things that we as humans will never nor have the ability to comprehend. "De javu" is one of those mysteries.

I have a seizure disorder and went through 7 months of Deja Vu, almost constantly. After having these "premonitions" so frequently, I learned to just live with them, and try to ignore it. Thinking you know everything that is gonna happen seconds before it does, which seems "superhero-ish" was actually annoying after a while. Not to mention very isolating. There was no fresh conversation, or idea that struck me as new. After months of this, I came to the conclusion that my brain was having "hiccups" and was stuck the loop of deja vu like a skipping record on a record player.

I know that people are very attached to the magic of these feelings, and want to prove it's supernatural origin so the magic doesn't fade. My temporal lobe epilepsy has showed me many amazing, if not frightening parts of the brain and what it can do. I do not think that medical science trivializes the power of these experiences. Our bodies, minds, and spirits live together, so why should a scientific explanation dismiss it? Science is only one part of the equation. That fear of what science can show us belies an insecurity to take ones own experiences and learn something from them. That is the individual's choice. After having surgery and finding a medication that works, my deja vu is about as frequent as the average person.

My mind has now moved onto overwhelming moments of perceiving synchronicity, which is another great and fascinating experience. Lucky for me, it's not constant and I can go on and live my life in the true moment...totally magic in it's own right.

Why don't we ever have DeJa Vu at times we are making a cup of tea? or brushing our teeth? :)

For me DeJa Vu seems to coincide with events that have significance, it can happen at times I'm in the company of people, or sometimes in places during experiences that are more remarkable than just say 'paying for your shopping in a supermarket'.

Have you ever randomly had a thought come into your mind that is not the result of thinking process, but a certainty that springs into your thoughts unannounced?, regarding some aspect of your own future? Something is either the right thing to do, or the wrong thing, and you just know it. Despite at the time there is no obvious basis for such extrapolation, and yet those thoughts did turn out to be correct further down the track.

Is that premonition, or intuition?

I'm happy with the knowledge that within our bodies DNA nucleotides are transcribed by RNA, into amino acids that are strung together to assemble proteins that build us and carry out all the functions of a living body and mind. And the why is explained by natural selection and evolution. But I've never read or heard any attempt at a convincing biological explanation for abstract things like intuition, or premonition (if premonition is real).

Do you think that DeJa Vu could just be our brains trying to completely backtrack on something we might have missed? It could be echoic and iconic memory working together without us even realizing it. Since it usually only happens that we know what will happen a few second (if that) before the scene is perceived to take place, then it could just be that we were focusing on something completely different and our mind deemed it worthy to catch all of it and play it back to us afterwards. In the case of DeJa Vu, we really did catch what it was our brains wanted to reiterate, however, our brain stumbles and repeats the event anyways.

I am no scientist (in fact I am just 14), however, I do believe there could be some truth in my hypothesis. What is your opinion?

Why dont we experience deja vu while making a cup of coffee? (I dont do tea) how much of your thought process do you use while making your cup of tea? Im guessing alot of your consciousness is somewhere else.

My Deja Vu experiences are accompanied by a wash of physical discomfort that paralyzes me temporarily. Recently my episodes occurred several times in one day over a 4 day period and seems to have effected my memory. Up until now, it has been manageable occurring only a couple of times a year for a day or so.

I recommend you visit your local physician and explain the situation to them. There are also specialists you can contact online (usually for a price but they can be reliable, just check site reviews before you trust someone with your information). I do hope that this is not a serious issue. Take care!

I'm an atheist and a naturalist. I don't believe any of the paranormal/supernatural whatever that other people talk about. I still don't really have an explanation for a few things that I have experienced.

Explained - "Familiarity" (Rarely happens to me)
Not remembering that I've actually been somewhere beforeNot remembering that I've seen some place before (e.g. via virtual walkthrough)Something in the past being very similar

Makes sense - "Seen before" (Occasional)
Short-term -> Sensory delay

Never seen addressed - "Seen and commented on" (Infrequent)

Example: I've just started a new post on a discussion forum that I've just signed up to. As I am writing a post, I suddenly 'recognize that I've written this before' and I 'remember the very thoughts that I'm having right now' seconds before they happen.

The "delayed sensory perception' explanation doesn't make sense here, and there would have to be more going on with a short-term -> and recall my 'future commenting'" (Rare)

So, take the example above, and add that I'm meta-aware of my commenting. As in, something I might say to myself is "I've seen myself thinking this about seeing myself thinking that about seeing this before. (Everything in first person, not third/out-of-body.)" There have been as many as three layers to this.

I think that any cognitive explanations that could account for what's going on with the latter cases would help to prevent people from buying into a lot of pseudoscience and paranormal/supernatural bs.

On a related note, I have tried to 'change my behavior' while experiencing deja vu. I recall thinking one time that thought that I actually did change something - though I didn't have the ability to distinctly recall the deja vu experience in contrast with my memory of what actually happened.

That gives me more reason to think that it's a memory or cognitive processing issue - and that it might be possible for the experience to be 'short-circuited' in regard to what I'll refer to as "lived experience deja vu". In other words, there might be cases of the processing/memory error resolving itself, or of one processing/memory error occurring, ending, and being so quickly followed by another processing/memory error that it seems as though one has been an 'agent of change' in 'one's future timeline'.

WORLD PEACE
Déjà vu experiences are the solution to world peace.
Early man, having this experience felt that he had been here before.
These feelings grew into ideas of reincarnation and became the basis for the world's first religions.
After centuries of growth, these feelings, that there was more to life, led to the age of enlightenment and various persons began to share their ideas.
Buddha realised that people made the world what it was, that in fact "with our minds we make the world".
On the other side of the continent we have ideas of a deity based belief taking hold.
In addition, we have people who traveled farther and reached relative isolation for many generations.
The people who made the Arctic crossing of the Bearing Straits formed ideas of a Great Spirit that lived within all things.
The Australian Aboriginal people knew that we are connected to the land through the dream universe.
If we take the important parts of all the world's religions, and piece them together, we get a very solid platform on which to build a new understanding of our world, and more importantly, our individual places in that world.
We are one people.
Sharing a world experience :)

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I had a dream around four or five months ago that I was in a differant city with my girlfriend and I had gotten a new job and that my employer had flown me out for training and my girlfriend had visited and we were waiting for the elevator in the hotel on our way to dinner.
I despised my job so much at that time that the dream made. me very happy and when I woke up I immediately told my girlfriend all about it.
Low and behold, the dream that I had took place in reality. As soon as it happened I reminded my girlfriend of the time we discussed my dream and she remembered it in detail as I had described as well.
Can you explain what occurred please?

When I read most descriptions of deja vu I wonder if what I experience is something different. What I experience usually relates to something I have dreamed about (either at night or while daydreaming); and a recurring one at that. and the feeling causes me to feel nauseous and dizzy; it lasts for more than an hour sometimes, and in a recent case caused me to faint (while doing a glacier tour). The only commonalities between occurrences are that I typically feel tired and hot before the onset.

My sensations are definitely not something to be savoured, but rather to be feared. Fortunately, these occurrences are rare (less than ten in my life).

I can tell you what this is from my own personal experience and i should hope somebody then goes onto tell the world as im not keen on repeating myself.

Deja vu is triggered when you are doing something you had previously "thought" about doing before then when you are not expecting it you find yourself in that situation you were previously thinking about, as human we are not fully conscious and do not remember everything we think about on a daily basis, instead its stored in our subconscious and used when needed on "Auto-pilot" without us having to consciously extend the thought pattern.

For example.

On Monday i think about going for dinner with a friend, in my mind i plan this for the following Monday and have various thoughts about how the evening might pan out.
(If you spend too long thinking about it you will be fully aware of the plan throughout the week and therefore you would not experience deja vu the following Monday)

So as we do not remember everything we think about, if you only spent a quick moment thinking about dinner with your friend next week then forget about it, this thought is now in your subconscious so when you are at dinner with your friend the following Monday, even if it feels unplanned or a spur of the moment decision you really are only having dinner because you thought about doing it last week but forgot about it.

So when your sat at dinner you can sense deja vu because you previously thought about having that dinner but couldnt recall the actual thought you had with it being burried deep along with all the other millions of thoughts you might have had.

If you are good at it like me you would add this sentance whilst having the initial thought - "And at this point i will remember being sat here a week ago thinking about being sat here a week later", then one week later when the deja vu sets in you will still get the deja vu feeling to start with but that will turn into a surprised feeling (if its your first time) as when that point happens when you said "And at this point i will remember" You will be able to remember that thought you had a week previous, you will also remember what you thought would happen next, enabling you to briefly see into the future. P.s - careful tho when i had my first prediction at the age of 16 i told my step-dad of the events that would unfold over the next few moments whilst stood with him, obviously he was surprised and sadly passed away just 2 weeks later.

From my personal experience practising this since i was only 16 so for the past 9 years what i thought would happen next "ALWAYS" happens next so take care in what you think about as it might just happen.
In other words - Careful what you wish for... Punk!

I like to put it this way - What we say has a reaction, what we do has a reaction and what we think about also has a reaction (being the biggest reaction from what i have noticed), crazy how nobody discovered any of this before me but i know it all too well now.

I can now comfortably say i can accurately predict the future at will. And also have many other abilities that i am trying to train.
(THIS ONLY WORKS FOR MYSELF, I CAN ONLY PREDICT MY OWN FUTURE, I CAN NOT PREDICT YOURS) why would i even try?

Precognition is a word i learned today, if i am the first person to have this experience of predicting the future etc then why do we already have different words to explain the actions?

Exactly obviously im not the only one! - Feel free to contact me if you want or need more information or have any questions about anything else.

I am really good at answering questions.

I didn't put all info in this short script as i left plenty of space for questioning.

More proof that thoughts have reactions.

This morning i was drifting back off to sleep when i suddenly thought about the tip of m6 finget being sliced off.
Sure enough i felt the pain.